The four symphonies of 19th-century German composer Robert Schumann have taken their critical knocks over the years, but Marin Alsop and the Colorado Symphony made a strong case for them in three different programs over the weekend.

Not concerts in the conventional sense, each offering constituted what are sometimes called “informances,” performances preceded by extensive introductions, with background, in this case, on Schumann and each selection.

Joining Alsop, the symphony’s conductor laureate, for each concert during the Schumann festival, was Richard Kogan, a pianist, psychiatrist and expert on the composer.

With her down-to-earth manner and quick humor, Alsop was as effective in this format. Kogan and she played comfortably off each other, with him focusing mostly on the impact of Schumann’s mental illness and her primarily dissecting the music.

No one would want every concert to follow this format. But when done in an accessible, measured fashion as it was here, such an approach makes sense for events of this kind, leaving audiences more informed and better able to appreciate the music.

That was especially true Sunday afternoon in a program devoted to the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97, “Rhenish,” and the more emotionally complex Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120 (originally written in 1841 and revised 10 years later).

The orchestra brought an appropriately exuberant spirit to the former, with the French horns in particularly fine form. Standing out was the solemn fourth movement, which unfolded in stirringly nuanced and measured fashion.

Highlighting the Symphony No. 4 was a propulsive take on the long first movement that managed to give shape to the ambiguous, sometimes cloudy emotional contours of this section while delivering a thrill at the same time.

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